Layout Voting Page

Show the Table of Contents...Hide

Please register on the site if you have not yet, and enter your votes and layout-specific comments below. Each layout will have a link back to this page just above the comments section.

For your reference, the layouts can be accessed using these links:

• Layout One
• Layout Two
• Layout Three
• Layout Four
• Layout Five
• Layout Six

Vote for your favorite layout and features here!

Each registered user can vote only once for each item. You can go back and change any of your votes at any time, though!

Please be sure to login to the site prior to entering your votes.

Favorite Layout (in general)

Favorite Features

General Layout

1. Current Page (topic page) Table of Contents (for EVERY page)

2. Whole Atlas TOC/Index available on EVERY page? How should it appear-- complete TOC (including subchapters), chapters-only TOC, just a single link back to the main (whole atlas) TOC, or nothing at all?

3. Table of Contents: do you like the "show/hide" feature?

4. Amount of Information Per Topic Page

5. Along the same lines, would you like to see a printable version? (Don't let your previous answer bias you on this one-- if we have one chapter per page it's printable anyway, if we go with subchapter links then we will make a printable version (PDF) available from the main chapter page)

6. What's your general feeling about the use of gross pictures in the atlas (they'd be there for orientation and reminders)?

7. For the example chapter, how did you feel about the amount of image examples?

Chapter Review Options

8. Do you like the table of identifications?

9. Do you like the thumbnail of the example slide (labeled) in the table (it's clickable!)?

10. Do you like the Review of Slides feature, where you click on the thumb and begin a slideshow of all slides in the chapter?

Image Presentation

11. Do you want the hotlinks within the text linking to the individual images?

12. Do you like the thumbs gallery to appear with the text? Do you prefer it labeled or unlabeled?

13. Do you like to click the thumbs and get a single picture, or a slide show of all related pictures?

14. Do you like the option to show/hide the thumbs gallery?

Provide any extra comments on each layout

Layout 1 Comments

This layout has links to slides on a separate page. Every available magnification of one slide is on an individual page. The main text has a link for each slide set underneath the relevant text.

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Layout 2 Comments

This layout begins the incorporation of thumbnails. In this case, they are unlabeled. Also, this layout has a TOC from the main chapter page that links to subchapters on individual pages, and each individual subchapter page also has a TOC that allows you to jump to any of the other subchapters, as well as back to the main chapter page.

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Layout 3 Comments

This layout has a main chapter page (with a TOC) with introduction and links to subchapters on separate pages. Also, there are complete thumbnail galleries for each subchapter viewable on this main page, as well as the first instance of a "review of all urinary slides" feature at the very bottom for studying purposes.

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Layout 4 Comments

This layout has a TOC and links to subchapters on separate pages. It also has the review of slides feature on the main page. It differs from Layout 3 in two major ways- 1. It does not have mutliple thumbnail galleries for each subchapter, and 2. It incorporates a summary table of IDs (this is just a preliminary table, and is incomplete in this version).

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Layout 5 Comments

This layout suggests a template for headings and subheading to be applied across chapters.

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Layout 6 Comments

This layout is a whole chapter on one page, includes gross anatomy images, allows for collapsible TOCs and thumbnail galleries to save space, has tables of IDs and representative slides for each subchapter, has a review of all chapter IDs on a single table (including example labeled slides), and contains a review of slides feature.

• This layout is the most friendly for printing. This layout also benefits from viewing while using the "printable" skin. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007

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Begin Topic

General Comments

• Forgot one- Link only to Main Atlas TOC (vs subchapters, etc) on individual pages -- AshleyLPistorio - 01 Jun 2007
• Summary of Meeting (suggestions, decisions) 5/31/07:
  • tables-- default open
  • "other links" at end
  • return to TOC after each subheading
  • microscope as appendix -- AshleyLPistorio - 31 May 2007
• The vote tallies have been reset as of 17:15 on 5/26/07. If you voted before now on any topic, you need to re-enter your vote. My apologies, but there was a glitch. -- AshleyLPistorio - 26 May 2007
• The easiest thing might be to simply rename the ids once your email is sent. I think that will take care of it. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• I am not able to register multiple votes. I bet by tomorrow I could. I don't think that is a a big deal. I will look into clearing the votes. When is your letter going out? -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• That might be by design. I think that there is a time parameter, maybe 24 hrs, after which, you can vote again. I am glad that we are not at a Florida university. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• Oh. I didn't change the id on the first question-- that's been the same for a while and that's the one that registered multiple votes for me. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Is this behavior duplicated in the sandbox? -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• Yes, I voted more than once and had it register for a single question as multiple votes. If you can clear it, let me know (or, I will obviously see that it is cleared-- assuming it empties all votes and we have to re-vote?). -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• I think what happened with the vote plugin is that the changing of ids might have allowed previous "failed" votes to be counted. Are you saying that you can, at this time, vote more than once? I might have to clear the meta data if I can find it. Or maybe there is a simple command. I will have to look at the plugin page. I am nearly certain it works correctly on the sandbox page. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• That is what I was working on in UrinarySystem5? . I do not see an easy way to do it. A gallery within a form or maybe within a table. I don't know. The image plugin is capable but there must be a way to integrate it with another feature/plugin to make linking a paragraph with an image. I would like to see an image gallery that would switch to a new paragraph of information each time the image slide was advanced. Slidey plugin could do this but I have not found a way to limit word wrap to the space between headings. This way information like, "notice that Bowman's space, barely seen at 10X is clearly visible at 20X. Further notice the while the PAS and Carmine stains did not clearly show the visceral membrane, the H&E stain highlights the visceral and parietal layers..... and so on." This way a story could be told with each advancing slide relative to the previously viewed slides in the gallery. Personally, I think this capability is critical to the success of the Atlas. It would put us on the map. Once the slide boxes on the shelf, when does a virtual atlas becomes a virtual textbook? For the atlas to teach renal physiology would be inappropriate but I think much is to be said about microanatomy. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• By the way, you are correct. I'm able to vote more than once and have it register as "two" votes. How do we fix this? It was working in your vote sandbox, right? -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• I think that you are correct in inviting reviewers to involve themselves now. We could have a pre-meeting and then have it escalate into an desperate decision making moment though people may have not reflected on the material. An email from you at this time makes sense. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• How would we make the image guide the viewers? Meaning, logistically, as we've set it up now (in the various ways)... I prefer a certain plugin that provides labels and was wondering how we'd add a "question" or "look at..." for each image. Going through the text, it becomes obvious what you're looking at/for, and maybe it's just my old school microscope-user self talking, but it's always reasonable for me to start zoomed out and then move in on the object of interest to understand its structure and relationships. I'm not trying to create a virtual microscope, but without zoomed out images I feel there is a loss of perspective despite not having a specific task for some of those sections (but again, I am old-school, I know!). -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• I did talk to him before I left for home. Would it be more reasonable to let people peruse the layouts (I suggest reading the voting options first so they understand what they're looking for/at), then schedule a meeting for Wed to clear up anything? I could certainly field questions here or via email. Problem is, I'd like to get moving on the decision and Mon is a holiday and Tues I am in Lancaster during business hours. I'd hate to put off until Wed for those who feel comfy enough with the web and/or TWiki to take a prelim look-see. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• In an ideal world, your thought pattern works. But I seriously doubt that our reviewers will grasp the issues without you first introducing the layouts/features. I believe it is fair to say that isz will greatly benefit from a pre-meeting. The danger is that a pre-meeting could quickly progress to hasty solutions rather than allowing the reviewers to reflect and become familiar with the issues. People are always looking for a quick fix. You might want to talk to him. In fact, he told be that he was going looking for you a couple of hours ago. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• How about one more vote item related to your question about the number of sections. I do not think that it is a good idea to have any image included that somehow does not have a story to tell. I think that every image I have seen has a story to tell so I am comfortable with the number of images as they currently exist. What I am not comfortable with is showing an image that does not justify itself to the viewer. "Why am I looking at this image." I know that there are participants that do not agree with me. Thus, could there be a vote question asking whether each image should present some guidance to the viewer? -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• I thought the consensus was that I send it out and let them explore without preconceived notions that I may invoke, and then we meet to discuss the results. Or, it could be almost entirely virtual except for the meetings between you, Z, and I. This page would allow both questions and comments on each layout, or in general.
• In the email I would direct them to register if they had not already and then direct them to this page with a few words of what we're hoping for. I want all comments and questions regarding the layouts to be centralized here. Opinion? -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• What is the topic of the email? Are you proposing a meeting date? My understanding is that we will be having a meeting where you introduce the issues. Our reviewers then adjourn for one or two days to familiarize themselves with the layouts/features, they vote, and then we meet again, most likely non-virtual, to finalize a course of action. Is this correct? -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• Well, OK. I'll put 1-4,6 below the layout comment headings... you can put whatever you think deserves pointing out under 5. Then, I'd really like to get that email sent out to everyone-- any last minute changes to the voting page or need to reset the plugin? -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• There is merit to placing your thoughtful summary comments beneath the subheadings and letting hackers like me be subordinated to making a bulleted comment. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• All redundancy would be solved by making the chapters a menu bar at the top... but I live in a fantasy world. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Yes, but because the global toc will contain the local toc, it is not clear if you are asking, indirectly, to promote omitting the local toc because of redundancy. Related - to think backwards, the global toc can be created from includes of the local chapter tocs. I imagine there is a TWiki tool for this. I have not looked. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• Don't think too much about this question. I'll reword it so it's obvious what I'm asking. Just keep in mind I don't want conditional features unless explicitly stated... I want them to just tell me if they'd like to have access to a whole atlas TOC/partial atlas TOC or not, or a link back to the main whole atlas TOC/Index. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Regarding the index generator. There are zillion ways to skin a cat. All of them offensive to PETA. Ultimately, I imagine that there will be a TOC topic page for the entire document. The "include" command can be used to insert that topic page into any topic. I imagine that the include would work inside twisty. I like this solution better than the index generator anyway because it simplifies administering the site. Any changes to the TOC topic page will register automatically throughout the site. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• The is merit in reconsidering the wording on #2. The statement is impossible. Do you want it all and how much. You might be certain that the word "it" is unambiguous in all instances. Also on # 2. Is it a given that the local TOC would be there as well? The twisty plugin makes the real estate problem less of an issue. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• The whole menu TOC question will be moot if we can get the Index Generator working to insert chapters on the top menu bar... -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• I have no idea who the 4th person would be, unless someone was just playing around. Do you want to reset the plugin now, before I send out the email? Or just send the email and see if the numbers make sense? -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Yes, but can you account for 4 people voting on the layout? I don't think that the web changes topic registers changes submitted by the plugin. The comment plugin is registered though. I see my mistake. I was more focused on technology than content and made a boo boo. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• The show/hide is a different question - the one you added to was asking if you want a 'whole atlas TOC' or not-- or just back to the main atlas TOC/Index of chapter.
• I have not yet recruited people via email. I want to send that out as soon as we think this is working. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Have you recruited people to vote? The numbers are not adding up to you and me. I know ISZ placed a vote. The plugin might have to be reset once we settle down on making them work. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• I added "show/hide toggle" to the toc choices. The "toggle" could be omitted to improve the bar graph but then you wrote a book for the link choice so the toggle does not hurt anything. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• Are you using "legal" ids? No spaces. -- LorenEvey - 25 May 2007
• This is still being worked up. The silly vote plugin is uncooperative with multiple scripts per page or something (something as in, me scripting it wrong!). That's irritating. -- AshleyLPistorio - 25 May 2007
• Speaking of server performance, this AM I doubled the ram in the server to 2G. I doubt that this is nearly enough to cache the images when 150 users are hitting the site. Please let me know if you notice a performance difference today. I can't see a difference here because my 8-year old desk computer is a bottleneck. I can work on this Wiki from HMC with higher performance than I can from my desk computer. My desk computer is located about 6 feet from the server! You have probably noticed that if you go to a different topic page there can be a considerable lag and then the page loads at once. I think that this is happening at the server and has to do with caching the hard drives. This is another reason that I am promoting one chapter per page. Reducing the number of topics increases the probability that a particular topic is in cache when a new user loads it. Of course, I could build, budget permitting, a quad core server with 64 gig of ram. Then we could have topic pages galore. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• Your question about how much do you want to scroll is a bit misleading. There can be an entire chapter on one page. With thoughtfully placed targets a single page would require less scrolling than having separate topic pages . Plus, performance would be enhanced - both on the server and at the client. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• Have you played with the twisty plugin? I played with it a bit and am doing so now. Take a look at it. You might see a way to use it to maximize screen use. For example, you could provide the opportunity to optionally hide information - tables, answers to questions, and so on. It is a simple, yet I suspect, viable educational tool. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• I also think that it is a good idea to meet in a conference room, as you suggested, to introduce people to the various issues. Then, again as you suggested, give them a day or two to "play" with the various layouts. Then, we hound them to take a stand. Of course, the site will not progress entirely by democratic principles. Nevertheless, I think that voting is an excellent way to encourage our participants to be informed. and to contribute. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• I think that there 19 chapters to do. It is a reasonable gamble to spend more time on acquiring a foundation of knowledge having faith that this foundation will payoff down the road. This view is a major divergence from the thinking of those who design curricula based on relevance. A very bad thing to do in my estimation. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• Hm. So you think I should spend today getting together just one more layout, finalizing this page, and then send the email to everyone to register and check it out? I actually got to thinking about a different layout anyway... so heck, maybe I'll end up with two more. I don't want to go nutso here, but I'm trying to be thorough without invoking the Peter Principle. There are many options to play with.
• Yes, the I felt the TOC might be cumbersome on some pages where there are many headings-- but it certainly is useful for you non-scrollers.
• About the auto TOC vs custom TOC-- I was originally generating my own TOC in the text code because I found it took less space. Wiki likes to add loads of space around headings (that I might have to use just to get them included in the auto-TOC) and I think it requires unnecessary scrolling and isn't as easy to read- but maybe this is a skin thing (I could change size and color of certain subheading levels so they blend in a little better). -- AshleyLPistorio - 24 May 2007
• There may be merit into "forcing" yes/no answers from the participants on certain features. For example, automatic TOC at the top. You could quickly generate a survey. You could use the vote plugin with two choices - yes and no. You know my vote on the TOC. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• I had to remove the space from the vote ID to make it work. -- LorenEvey - 24 May 2007
• For the next meeting could you take a topic page, for example this page, and show two versions - one with, and one without, the TOC command? It seems that you made a conscious decision to omit the TOC from this page. I don't quite follow your reasoning. I use the TOC and the "begn topic" in place of scroll bars. -- LorenEvey - 23 May 2007
• What a great idea! Pretty gutsy. Put the participants, including me, on notice. How about one more layout? I am continuing to work on Layout 5. Could you take a subheading like the Ureter (there are only 4 images) and use the image plugin with a table to generate thumbnails and then link to each of the four images on the same topic page (no external links except to the image repository). Only this time, have floating text tied to the images. I have an editor ready to work on the urinary chapter. He is from the Johns Hopkins Division of Nephrology. His contribution will further demonstrate the effectiveness of Wiki technology for academic collaboration among geographically distanced institutions. His contribution will be to evolve the atlas into a Wiki based textbook of medical histology. His entire contribution will be solely to generate content. There needs to be a way to associate an image with a "figure caption" of considerable length. I suspect that this will involve forms. A form showing the image and a text entry field might be the ticket for authoring. Then submitting the form would update the image and floating text in place within the topic. You can see a form in action on the home page that was created when you registered. -- LorenEvey - 23 May 2007

Begin Topic

-- AshleyLPistorio - 23 May 2007